Simming highest for ST. BrS is good as a lower cost CP Generator, but I can't see a problem if you're taking advantage of Sabertooth. FB also has 20% extra with that talent which has got to help as well.

I take sabertooth but not because of bleeds...it's for 20% increased damage to my ferocious bite, which I use alot.

My meter tells me that Rip is underperforming at my current 23% haste, 21% mastery...So I don't use it. That, and nobody cares about single target as much anymore, and putting all my eggs into the Rip basket neuters the somewhat decent AoE i'm getting now.

Having my rip refresh automatically when I FB is just a bonus...means I don't have to worry about it.

I take sabertooth but not because of bleeds...it's for 20% increased damage to my ferocious bite, which I use alot.

My meter tells me that Rip is underperforming at my current 23% haste, 21% mastery...So I don't use it. That, and nobody cares about single target as much anymore, and putting all my eggs into the Rip basket neuters the somewhat decent AoE i'm getting now.

Having my rip refresh automatically when I FB is just a bonus...means I don't have to worry about it.

I take sabertooth but not because of bleeds...it's for 20% increased damage to my ferocious bite, which I use alot.

My meter tells me that Rip is underperforming at my current 23% haste, 21% mastery...So I don't use it. That, and nobody cares about single target as much anymore, and putting all my eggs into the Rip basket neuters the somewhat decent AoE i'm getting now.

Having my rip refresh automatically when I FB is just a bonus...means I don't have to worry about it.

Is your AOE worse/same by not taking brutal slash?

I find my AoE being better by not taking brutal slash. Everyone's hell bent on these sims...but I'm all about experimentation and finding what works best for me...

I've tried different iterations with different azerite traits and gear sets in different dungeons.

The best thing I've come up with so far, and seems to be providing somewhat decent results for both single target and AoE, is the combination of SoTf, Sabertooth and Moment of clarity.

The key azerite trait is wild fleshrending, which I'm running on a pair of ilvl 340 Honorbound Outrider's Shoulderguards. I get an additional flat 926 damage boost to my shred, and an additional 300 damage to my swipe. 95% of my gear comes with haste/crit, leaning more towards crit. (Some gear has crit/haste with more haste, or more crit)

Swipe gets a 20% damage boost from targets with bleed, 15% from clearcasting proc and 15% from Tiger's Fury. So it's a potential 1.5x multiplier. As Targets with bleed on them are picked off, Tiger's Fury comes back up.

With a little bit of button mashing, you can get a ton of swipes off in a short period of time. Also keep in mind, clear-casting gives you free swipes as well...so that's a +.

What also helps with this is being able to dump free 35% damage boosted 5 point ferocious bites into things in-between swipes. It's about as energy efficient as you can get at the moment.

If you happen to like brutal slash, wild fleshrending will also buff brutal slash if you take that talent. My current brutal slash tooltip is 2,773.

Here are some "totally unbiased" snapshots of my meter on somewhat larger pack fights in heroics.

https://i.imgur.com/CKp1NVx.png

https://i.imgur.com/jCYL9av.png

I'd have more, but I'm usually too busy enjoying the carnage to bother taking screens.

The way I see it, at least right now, we simply don't have the base haste provided from gear available to us required to run an effective Brutal Slash. at a base haste of 23%, my cooldown is 6.5 seconds...so once I dump my 3 brutal slashes, that's it...I can't spam it the way I can swipe. Initially your numbers will look great with bslash, but as pack fights progress past the initial burst, it tapers off...While swipe is pretty consistent, and actually ramps up towards the middle of pack fights.

I can see bslash being effective in raids once we have better base haste. I can also see it being effective versus mobs with larger health pools, that come in packsizes of 5+. My swipe layout relies on targets with bleed dying to get the most out of it, and targets in heroics are still somewhat squishy...

ive done multiple sims and sabertooth with soul of the forest is the best option. however i recommend Jagged wounds with brutal slash use on moment procs for dungeons.

Raid spec will be1/3 (barely any difference about 70-100 dps Lunar is higher though)1/3 (Tiger dash will be preffered 80% of times)1 (Balance affinity must)1 (Bash must can go for typhoon as well for certain fights)1 (soul is must atm due to bad energy although Jagged is close competitor 170-200 dps difference)1 (sabertooth must)2 (bloodtalons for Bt buffed FB spam with Sabertooth)